VIP Cocktail Show Me The Money By Rubem Robierb
Saturday February 4, 2012 7pm-10pm
Curator’s Voice Art Projects
2509 NW 2nd Ave
Miami, FL 33127

Curated by Milagros Bello, Ph.D.
Rubem Robierb Dream Series #3, 2011

Photographer Rubem Robierb offers in this exhibition a parodic view of the dollar money. It is the dollar as a generic product and a raw material that signifies the extreme materialism that governs the American system. Money is an American paradigm that defines not only the economic scheme in which people live in but it is also a mechanism in which people center their lives.

Money is the breakup of hope, the means for happiness in the American materialist perspective. Money is a deep rooted and a particularly excelled value in the American mentality; also well defined as a key goal in life. Having more (no matter the costs and the means) is being more. Getting more is being better (even in detriment of quality time, and life or health issues). Money is the daydreaming of the American masses. Robierb expresses: “Money in America is power and status reflecting the materialist culture of these times. But “Money in Latin America is associated with guilt and prejudice.”

Robierb’s money photographs emits political and sometimes caustic resonances. The artist re appropriates the dollar image, twisting its shape into different meaningful figures. In curling and entwining the dollar bill papers of different denominations, the artist generates ideological forms.

In the photograph Dream Series No. 3, 2011 done over One-dollar bill, the artist shaped the United States map spotlighting at the top the words United States, and half of the face of first President George Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart. The half face representation twisted in a way Washington’s eye is strongly staring at the viewer. The photo alludes to the power of America, and the power of the US currency as a dominant symbol in collective mentalities.
Milagros Bello, Ph.D.
Curator of the show